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Ratings:
The * rating (½-5) is my personal, entirely subjective and completely partisan rating of the music.
There is, of course, no 'Tron rating.
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Pangée Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham Pineapple Thief |
Porcupine Tree Doug Powell |
The Provenance Providence |
Purple Overdose Pip Pyle |
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Hymnemonde (1995, 47.14) ***½Quartus FrénésiFondation Trépanation Portuaire Vermeil Armada Cataracte Le Sanctuaire d'Euterpe |
Current availability:
It would seem that Québec's Pangée produced just the one album in the mid-'90s, Hymnemonde, then simply disappeared. Interestingly, it's difficult to pin down, style-wise; to the band's credit, they don't really sound like anybody at all. Maybe their (relative) cultural isolation had something to do with this; after all, (listenable) Québecois progressive rock has been pretty thin on the ground since the late '70s, so the band seem to have developed their own instrumental style, based around clean guitar, tricky rhythms and pad-like keyboard work. Difficult to pick out album highlights; suffice to say, despite a certain low-budgetness, it's actually a pretty good listen, and a long way from the sort of neo-prog nonsense that their countrymen were producing at the time.
I'm actually having serious doubts as to the veracity of Jean-François Bergeron's 'Mellotron' here, though; one minute the strings on Cataracte sound a lot like the mighty 'Tron, the next the same strings on Le Sanctuaire D'Euterpe sound more like string samples until they get into the lower registers. And as for the choir on the same track... 'Tron or non-'Tron? Samples? Generic sounds? Hard to say.
Overall, then, a good, rather unusual album, although with the band obviously long gone, it's out of print, and (sadly) probably likely to remain that way. I wouldn't go looking for it as some sort of lost Mellotron classic, but it's decidedly worth hearing on musical grounds.
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L'Avventura (2003, 44.11) **½ |
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| Night Nurse Ginger Snaps I Deserve it Out Walking Moonshot Hear the Wind Blow Your Baby Threw it Away |
Knives From Bavaria Random Rules Indian Summer |
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Current availability:
Luna's Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham released L'Avventura not long before their parent band split, the only album they've released under that specific appellation, subsequently working as Dean & Britta. Unsurprisingly, it's not a million miles away from Luna's 'dream pop', with strong hints of Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra's easy listening '60s vibe about it, which is unlikely to endear it to fans of '70s prog or hard rock; even psych fans may well reject this for its excess corn. Several of its tracks are covers, not least Madonna's I Deserve It and The Doors' Indian Summer, all treated to the same smooth, velvety treatment which you really will either love or hate, I suspect.
Producer Tony Visconti (that explains the album's sound, then) plays 'Mellotron' flutes and strings on Out Walking, but the low string notes give their sampled origin away, making it a tad irritating that it's credited as 'Mellotron'. Again. A rather ordinary part, anyway, on an album you're probably not going to like, although I'll admit it's good at what it does.
See: Luna
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137 (2002, 71.30) **** |
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| Lay on the Tracks Perpetual Night Shift Kid Chameleon Incubate Doppler Ster Release the Tether How Did We Find Our Way? |
137 Reserve Warm Me PVS MD One |
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Variations on a Dream (2003, 63.00) **** |
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| We Subside This Will Remain Unspoken Vapour Trails Run Me Through The Bitter Pill Resident Alien Sooner or Later Part Zero |
Keep Dreaming Remember Us |
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It seems Pineapple Thief started life as a Vulgar Unicorn side-project, lead by VU man Adrian Soord's brother Bruce; VU are supposed to have used Mellotron on a couple of later albums, although I've only heard their first two, and the likelihood is that they're samples. It seems that PT's second and third releases, 137 and Variations on a Dream, both contain Mellotron samples, despite the sleeve credits for 'Mellotron'. So, are the credited Rhodes and Prophet 5 samples too? Anyway, both albums remind me strongly of that strand of modern British progressive that seems to emanate from the No-Man/Porcupine Tree axis, and specifically, Henry Fool. Moody, introverted music with more than a hint of Radiohead about it, PT disguise their uneasy listening with deceptively smooth tones, allowing the inherent edginess of their sound to creep up on the listener, unnerving them before they've realised what's happened. Variations on a Dream is probably the better of the two albums, as Soord develops his own style, which isn't to denigrate 137 in any way. I suspect the best track over both albums is Variations' closing 16-minute epic, Remember Us, although there's no such thing as a 'bad' track on either release.
Adrian Soord's 'Mellotron' can be heard on several tracks on each album; surely it can't have been that difficult to source a real one for recording? You get the impression that many of these bands couldn't actually care less; as long as an approximation of the sound's there, it's immaterial how it's produced. Maybe they have a point. However, samples always seem to lose something in translation, and they're just that little bit too... perfect. However much of an arse-pain a real 'Tron can be to maintain, or even play, 'that' sound just doesn't sound right coming from anything else, especially when it's had its rough edges rounded off, not to mention being looped...
So; both albums are recommended, though not for those who can't stand anything that isn't 'uplifting'. Is there such a thing as 'downlifting'? File alongside Henry Fool and Radiohead.
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Signify (1996, 61.53) ****½ | |
| Bornlivedie Signify Sleep of No Dreaming Pagan Waiting Waiting Phase Two Sever Idiot Prayer |
Every Home is Wired Intermediate Jesus "Light Mass Prayers" The Sound of No-one Listening Dark Matter |
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Stupid Dream (1999, 60.02) ***** | |
| Even Less Piano Lessons Stupid Dream Pure Narcotic Slave Called Shiver Don't Hate Me This is No Rehearsal Baby Dream in Cellophane |
Stranger By the Minute A Smart Kid Tinto Brass Stop Swimming |
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Lightbulb Sun (2000, 56.22) ****½ |
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| Lightbulb Sun How is Your Life Today? Four Chords That Made a Million Shesmovedon Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before it is Recycled The Rest Will Flow Hatesong |
Where We Would Be Russia on Ice Feel So Low |
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In Absentia (2002, 68.20/84.35) ****½ |
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| Blackest Eyes Trains Lips of Ashes The Sound of Muzak Gravity Eyelids Wedding Nails Prodigal 3 |
The Creator Has a Mastertape Heartattack in a Layby Strip the Soul Collapse the Light Into Earth [Initial pressings include: Drown With Me Chloroform Strip the Soul (video edit)] |
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Deadwing (2005, 59.46) ****DeadwingShallow Lazarus Halo Arriving Somewhere But Not Here Mellotron Scratch Open Car Start of Something Beautiful Glass Arm Shattering |
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Porcupine Tree are a bit of a conundrum on the 'Tron front; they've credited it on several albums, sometimes on a track-by-track basis, but Thanasis Tsilderikis assures me that band mainman Steven Wilson admitted in a 1997 interview that the 'Mellotron' on '96's Signify was sampled, and it seems highly likely that the same can be said for their entire 'Mellotronic' catalogue. I can't say I'm that surprised, given my deep suspicions of the 'Tron use on both In Absentia and Deadwing, the latter being absolutely smothered in 'Tron strings in the way that people don't tend to do with the real thing. Anyway, Porcupine Tree started life in the very early '90s as a cassette release-only, rather secretive little outfit, basically singer/multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson working anonymously on his own. Within a few years, the 'Tree became a band proper, and started releasing milestones such as '94's The Sky Moves Sideways (****), fusing psychedelia and prog into an almost-original cohesive whole (with only a slight Pink Floyd influence), while also becoming deservedly really rather popular.
Anyway, Signify's 'Tron samples don't get much of an (official) look in, with some string chords on the title track, and near-inaudible strings on the wonderful Sleep Of No Dreaming, although there are various 'Tronalike sounds scattered throughout the album, making me wonder if some of those 'Steven Wilson: keyboards' credits actually include The (sampled) Beast? As far as the album itself is concerned, the music is excellent, from the ambient intro of Bornlivedie through the rocking instrumental title track to the dreamlike Waiting Phase Two, there's something here for everyone (well, almost); certainly anyone into almost any area of progressive rock, and many who aren't, I'd say. A fine album, more than worth a listen or three, though not for the sampled Mellotron.
'97's live Coma Divine (*****) effectively put the lid on the 'Tree of old, leaving Wilson free to reinvent their style for '99's Stupid Dream, although if truth be told, it wasn't that different to Signify, in its shorter-song format and more 'commercial' sound (everything's relative...). It's every bit as eclectic as its studio predecessor, just with a few more 'mainstream' songs thrown in, and stronger melodies all round, so cries of 'sellout!' are a tad premature, methinks. Highlights include Even Less, Pure Narcotic, Don't Hate Me and the sublime A Smart Kid, but the whole album's brilliant, to be honest, especially for, er, 'kicking back' of an evening. The material also translates brilliantly on stage, so let's hope for a future live release of some of this music. Fake Mellotron from ex-Japan keyboard man Richard Barbieri on two tracks only (that I can hear, anyway); orchestrated strings on Pure Narcotic and a couple of string swells on This Is No Rehearsal, although either of these could be real strings, also heard on A Smart Kid; hard to tell.
Lightbulb Sun appeared the following year, as if to make up for the wait for Stupid Dream, and this time, maybe the band had gone a little too far towards the mainstream (13-minute epic Russia On Ice excepted), although it's still a bloody good album. Four Chords That Made A Million and Shesmovedon are probably the standouts, but once again, no duffers. Four sampled 'Tron tracks this time, with both Wilson and Barbieri playing; the title track has some background choirs, Shesmovedon has a faint string part, the drifting Last Chance To Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled has a flute melody towards the end, and Hatesong finally features a fairly upfront strings part. 'Mellotronically' speaking, best yet, chaps.
In Absentia sees Porcupine Tree returning slightly to their roots, with less of the overtly commercial material of its two predecessors. Steven Wilson appears to have picked up a trick or two from his most recent outside production, heavier-than-thou Swedes Opeth, too, with passages of ferocious heaviosity ducking in and out of the more drifting, acoustic-based material that comprises much of the album. No credited (fake) 'Tron, though Gravity Eyelids has a fairly overt choir part, and there's a few similar chords towards the end of Wedding Nails. There may well be 'Tron string parts scattered through the album, too, but (again...) it's really hard to tell, so only two tracks highlighted.
Three years on, Deadwing ups the ante by being a good composite of the band's various styles over the years, although it couldn't be mistaken for anything other than the new Porcupine Tree album, to be honest. Opening with the nine-minute title track was a brave move, but I can't see their growing audience having too much trouble with this tactic, although many of them are now from a 'non-prog' background, which must please Mr.Wilson highly. The album also contains by far and away the most fake 'Tron on a Porcupine Tree record (Christ, there's even a track called Mellotron Scratch!); mostly strings, anyway, although the sleeve credit saying, "This recording makes extensive use of Line 6 modelling guitars, effects and amplifiers, and software by Native Instruments" makes me think very few 'real' pieces of gear were utilised, though I've been wrong before. You'd be right, incidentally, to say, "So what?", although I feel that the equipment used affects the musicians' performance, the catch being, 'which way?'. Anyway, flutes and choir on Mellotron Scratch, and particularly effective strings on Deadwing are amongst the 'Tron highlights here.
So; all in all, not much of a Mellotron band, really, real or (almost certainly) fake, save for Deadwing, although they're superb in every other respect. None of the albums mentioned above should disappoint, but be careful with their very early material, or the various outtakes albums that have appeared over the years.
See: Blackfield | I.E.M. | Opeth
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The Lost Chord (2002, 41.04) **** |
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| Merlin Laughed Nietzsche is Dead (Verse 1) A Roar Boring Alice Baby Blue Queen of Hurts The Lost Chord Cul-De-Sac The Palace of a Sigh |
Machina Nietzsche is Dead (Verse 2) She Walks on Water |
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Jim Rigberg's first Sampledelica review, folks...
Don't you just love it when a release grabs you by the ass from the first note? Merlin Laughed, track 1 of Doug Powell's The Lost Chord, opens with sputtering (sampled) 'Tron choir and strings leading into a great harmony vocal singing the song's motif. Things just get better from there. Stylistically, The Lost Chord is going to flat-out appeal to Jellyfish fans; it would be hard to get away from Jellyfish comparisons because Powell's voice is very similar to Andy Sturmer's. Melodically speaking, Powell's work is every bit as strong as anything Jellyfish ever released and easily stands up in its own right.
The 'Tron apparently is the product of samples from the EMU Vintage Keys Plus module. Mr.Powell has advised that he removed the effects that had been included with the presets and used a 'dry sample'. The results are impressive - none of the 'Tron sounds fake nor are there any dead giveaways (e.g. infinite sustains). The Lost Chord also does NOT engage in Thompson's pet peeve (crediting anyone, anywhere with 'Mellotron' where no actual Mellotron is used). The sampled 'Tron, moreover, pops up all over the place.
Any Jellyfish fans, those who like pop/prog crossovers, excellent songwriting, etc. as well as those who like hearing a lot of Mellotron - regardless of whether its sampled or real - will want to add this CD to their collection.
| Jim Rigberg |
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How Would You Like to Be Spat at (2005, 53.21) **½ |
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| Woh II TSC Heroine Catching Scarlet in the Sun How Would You Like to Be Spat at in the Face Some Gossip on Stealing a Spouse Going Down |
Considering the Gawk, the Drool, the Bitch and the Fool Kick You So Hard About a Whore, About a Kill Speeding to Get By |
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The Provenance fall into that non-category, 'modern prog', a kind of postmodern 'anything goes' area, where a track can start off in an indie vein, shift through ambient territory into extreme heaviosity. Bit like modern Porcupine Tree, I suppose, albeit with female vocals. Like that band, I'm not sure the combination actually works that well, at least not over the length of an entire album, as substance seems to have been largely sacrificed in favour of style, although it's possible some of the material might grow on me were I able to give it enough time.
Mellotron strings on most tracks, sometimes doubled with either fast-bowed string samples or a guitar delay effect, notably on opener Woh II TSC (huh?), although I'm pretty damn' sure they're all samples. Usual stuff: over-use of the strings, 'too-clean' and consistent sound... I haven't actually spotted any overlong notes (the ultimate giveaway), although the last, held note of Kick You So Hard cuts it close. Flutes here and there, and even what sounds like brass on Going Down, but the choirs on Considering The Gawk, The Drool, The Bitch And The Fool are, again, too clean for their own good.
All in all, I'm afraid to say I found this a rather dispiriting listen. Lots of other bands' work pilfered, lots of clichés strung together, little real imagination and bugger-all originality. It's possible that the 'Tron is actually real, but this stays here until/if I should find out otherwise. Disappointing.
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And I'll Recite an Old Myth From... (1989, 53.05) ***½GalateaEternal Children Dream Seeker's Mirage And I'll Recite an Old Myth From... |
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There Once was a Night of "Choko-Muro" the Paradise (1996, 52.49) ***½HCHO 40An Epilogue for Cajolment There Once was a Night of "Choko-Muro" the Paradise Erlio A Breeze in the Dawn "Choko-Muro" the Paradise In the Moonlight |
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Providence seem to be one of the lesser-known Japanese '80s prog outfits, although their albums seem to be about as available as anyone else's that haven't been reissued on Musea. Their only album released in their 'lifetime', And I'll Recite an Old Myth From..., is often described as 'neo-prog', which is an over-simplification. The second half of the album is, indeed fairly sophisticated neo- with female vocals from Yõko Kubota, but the first track, Galatea, is ripping fusion-influenced progressive with nary a trace of bad '80s-ness about it, assuming you ignore the slap bass solo half-way through. Er...
Keys man Madoka Tsukada uses what sounds, on first listen, like Mellotron strings on three tracks, with a major part on Dream Seeker's Mirage, but upon closer scrutiny, it's this almost solo section that gives the game away; it's all in octaves (there was no two-octave string sound at the time), and the high notes are clearly stretched. They're good samples, but samples none the less.
Their rather belated follow-up from 1996, There Once was a Night of "Choko-Muro" the Paradise (what is it with their titles?), follows roughly the same path as their debut, being a mixture of superior neo-prog and old-school symphonic, with a 20-minute epic in its title track. Less 'Mellotron' this time round, with the only noticeable stuff being strings on the title track and A Breeze In The Dawn.
Compared to many of their contemporaries, Providence were well ahead of the game, with little of the cheesiness that marrs many other Japanese bands' work. Both albums reasonably recommended, but not for the fake 'Tron.
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Reborn (1999, 51.44) ***½ |
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| (It's a) Fortune Teller Gonna Be Tomorrow, Today Nobody There Her Arms Embraced the Sun Fading Sound of Lost Thoughts The Drone Long Way Down The Flight (Pt. 1) |
The Flight (Pt. 2) Reborn |
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The Salmon's Trip - Live [CD] (2000, 52.28) ***RebornBlank Empty Space You Lose it (Shady Reflections at the) Magic Forest (It's a) Fortune Teller Sail on Your Wings Pulsating the Door of My Dreams My Little Elf |
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The Salmon's Trip - Live [LP] (2000, 85.48) ***½Orange Journey(It's a) Fortune Teller (unplugged) Fading Sound of Lost Thoughts Golden Eyes Chase the Color Rooby Go Round Solemn Visions |
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Purple Overdose are reputedly one of the most authentic psych bands of the last decade or two, making it a shame they're based in a country not known for such things, heavily reducing their accessibility to Western European and American fans of the genre. Led by vocalist/guitarist Costas Constantinou, they've been around since the late '80s, releasing seven albums (live and studio) over two decades, of which Reborn is the fifth. This isn't your mad, post-freakbeat 13th Floor Elevators type stuff, nor your whimsical, well-mannered British style; this is that dreamy, lysergic late-'60s thing that Pink Floyd mastered before heading off for pastures new, only Purple Overdose have stuck to it for their entire career, turning their noses up at anything as bourgeois as progressing.
Top tracks include lengthy opener (It's A) Fortune Teller, the whacked-out acid guitar-fest of Gonna Be Tomorrow, Today and the title track, although the album never outstays its welcome, despite its length. Vasilis Kapanikis is credited with Mellotron, and while it could be genuine, it doesn't sound particularly like it, with string parts on Fading Sound Of Lost Thoughts and the title track.
The band released The Salmon's Trip - Live the following year, in two entirely different versions, just to confuse their audience. Although the available material would fit nicely onto two CDs, somebody opted to compile a 50-odd minute CD and a lengthy double LP, just too long for single-CD issue. Irritating. Going by the CD's tracklisting, the joy seems to have gone out of it, somehow, at least to my ears. It's not a bad album, but fails to grab my attention the way their studio effort does, with a couple of tracks jammed out for far too long. Another couple of 'Tron' tracks, quite clearly sampled this time, not that that should come as any great surprise. For some reason, the LP set works rather better, although (or because?) it features all the longer, more jammed-out material. Again, little samplotron, but the sound's clearly secondary low on the band's priority list.
So; three albums of new(-ish) yet ancient psych, seemingly better in the studio than live. Maybe we should think of them as two almost different bands, as the Floyd were early on; a more concise studio outfit and a jamming live band. Anyway, I may yet be proven wrong about the samples (or otherwise) on Reborn, but I won't be re. both versions of The Salmon's Trip.
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7 Year Itch (1998, 56.48) *** |
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| 7 Sisters Chinese Whispers Strawberry Fields Forever 7 Year Itch I'm Really Okay Once Around the Shelves Long on Shipwrecked (With Idle Hands) |
TL'Etat des Choses Foetal Fanfare Fandango |
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Although best-known for his membership of Brit-jazz-rock mavens Hatfield & the North and National Health, drummer par excellence Pip Pyle's forty-year career encompassed the better part of a dozen different outfits, excluding his solo work. 1998's 7 Year Itch is actually his only solo project, featuring contributions from many of his former bandmates, not least Dave Stewart, Elton Dean, Phil Miller, Hugh Hopper and Barbara Gaskin, pretty much a Who's Who of the Canterbury scene from the '70s. As a result, if you're allergic to said scene, or jazz-rock (as against fusion) generally, you're probably not going to like it very much. Like so many similar albums, it veers from whimsy to fiery workouts, often within the same piece, but really isn't that accessible to those of us who prefer our thirteenths unflattened.
Although Mellotron is rumoured, the pretty authentic 'Tron flute that open the ensemble's strangely jazzy take on you-know-who's Strawberry Fields Forever is credited as 'keyboards programmed by' either Pyle himself or Stewart, so the chances of it being real are vanishingly small to nonexistent, I'd say. Sadly, Pyle died in 2006, robbing the world of one of another great percussionist; the eclecticism of 7 Year Itch is a fitting tribute to his memory.
